Saturday, August 28, 2010

Wow, what a slacker! I gotta get on the stick here. I was supposed to be using this as a tool to start journaling. Ummmm not doing so well.

So I think I am over the hump at work, now I get to focus on vacation. It is pretty bad when you are so immersed in your work that you don't realize that...hey...you leave on vacation next Friday!!!

I usually blog pretty well on vacation. Guess that is because I have more time to blog. On many levels I am looking forward to getting away to the "big water" (as we affectionately refer to the ocean as). Lots of time to just do nothing and blog. Ahhh, that is the life!

Well, my break is over now, guess I will get back to my painting (as a note, moving a refrigerator away from the wall is not a pretty sight....but you probably already knew that). Our new front door is scheduled for installation this Tuesday. Oh boy, a whole new look! Yes kitchen and dining room, you are going down!

Saturday, August 21, 2010

The rampant wildfires have subsided, this week consisted of only huge cannonballs falling all around. I am actually looking forward to mere gunshots! (maybe next week?) We are still fighting, but we are winning the battle.

Stress...such a good thing to learn about. Most people think they can multitask, and that may be so, but how about managing everyone else's 'priority 1' problems? There were times this week when I felt I was inside an video game trying not to get killed and lose one of my lives while having things hurled at me from all directions.

Verifying problems, documenting them, prioritizing the list, assigning problems to the appropriate people to fix, finding work-a-rounds, calming frightened people all while the phone is ringing and the emails are flooding my in box in a non-stop fashion, this was what my job looked has like for the past two weeks. And any 'regular' work I had on my plate was definitely drowning/dying off in the process. (Ummm....could I be using this all as an excuse not to work on my performance review process?)

I feel that I am living, eating, sleeping, waking, talking, and breathing the Vine. I love that everyone I work with has the same desire as me to make this product the best ever, and I truly appreciate their passion. This is the best place to work, everyone has tons of grace for me as I negotiate my minefield.

The funny thing is when I can sit and reflect on the past two weeks I somehow feel exhilarated (how the heck does that happen? Is that what a day off will do for you?) It feels like I am really doing something worth while, and I really believe this will help further the Kingdom, and I am proud and honored to be a part of it. I can say that because I am writing this on my home computer, and not my work computer. I can, and do, leave my work at work (for the most part).

My prayer for next week is for just mere gunfire. I love my job and all the wonderful people I work with, and Ed for listening to all my ranting. God is sooooo good to me!

Friday, August 13, 2010

It started, well I don’t know exactly when it started, I guess when I took this job about five and a half years ago. But it culminated last Sunday/Monday (note those are my two days off) when we did the final database migration. We moved our entire church database (about 80,000 records or so) from an Oracle platform to a MySQL database platform, and that is as techie as I will get about that.

We took down the old system Sunday after everyone had left church and we were up and running on the new database platform by Monday morning. That’s when it all started. All the phone calls and emails and questions. I think I got more calls and emails this week from staff then I have in all the time I have been there. We birthed a new era for VCC, and the birthing pains have been going on for over a year.

The major I-am-dead-in-the-water-and-can’t-work, this-is-totally-unacceptable, fires have been put out, but there are still many bugs that are as big as my house yet to taken down.

True confession...I did have a couple of meltdowns (two, I think). Luckily no one actually saw them, but I am wondering how I came across to everyone. (This is a public apology to you if you were one of those who came close to my meltdown office at the wrong time, I am sorry.) It was a very interesting lesson in how I handle stress. I admit I learned something about myself through it all.

I am so fortunate that I work in a place that extends a lot of grace. (Lord knows I needed it, and I got it.) There were lots of frustrations, but it is over now. In the end I received a thank you (probably for not totally blowing up at anyone) that was far more than I deserved.

Everyone has their ‘seasons’ of work overload and stress at this place. I was just waddling through my ‘season’; it was my turn in the hot seat. The thanks, praise, (and yes) gifts I received humbled me more than they know.

When it was brought to me, I immediately realized that it was my peeps (my VUG) loving on me, and I was really kind of embarrassed about the whole thing. So embarrassed that I didn't even open the card for a long time. I kind of wanted to cry. I hate attention, and this was attention to the max. For the record I didn’t do anything more than anyone else at VCC would have done. Everyone works hard.

Tomorrow I am taking the day off (I get to spend it with my 100 year old grandma), but Sunday it may be back to testing again. All I can say at this point is, God thank you for this wonderful job, and the wonderful peeps I work with and for, you are so good to me.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Yep, we are a Droid family now. Not just any Droid, we had to be a Droid X. Thank you Verizon.

We moved up from the Blackberry Storm and I have to admit it is much, much better. I still haven’t learned all there is to learn. That is half the fun, discovering the new things it can do and weeding through the hundreds of apps there are out there for it.

Now don’t think we took this decision lightly. Ed did lots and lots of research before this decision was made. For me, I had to see the cost. Here is an example of how we both think differently.

Ed researched its capabilities, reading all the reviews and reports he could find. Even Consumer Reports recommended it over the new iPhone. Then, of course, there is the ‘cool’ factor you know. Yes, we were the first at work to have this magnificent piece of workmanship, that has many points attached to it right there.

As for me, what is this going to cost? Two years ago when we went to the Storm we justified the ‘data plan’ that you have to purchase. One way was to drop our land line, and we still never miss it! But that was so years ago. Now, how is this expense going to work? Well let’s think about this. The cost for the phone itself was $259. Yikes you say! How can you justify that? Here’s how, first there is $100 rebate (so far so good), second there is eBay! So far I have sold one of the phone for over $100 (minus shipping). So see…$59 for the coolest phone on the planet (at least this week!) isn’t so bad. The ‘cool’ factor is worth that, right?

But wait…there’s more!! I loaded I don’t know how many versions of the bible on my phone for free, one version cost $35 on my recently owned Palm. To beat that Bejeweled game was free too! Oh, and one more thing, isn’t that little Droid guy so cute? Kinda looks like C3PO’s cousin.

Is life good or what? (Was that too nerdy to say?) God is so good to us!